“Like an idiot”: Cycling star celebrates too early

Former road cycling world champion Julian Alaphilippe celebrated too soon on the 15th stage of the Tour de France and celebrated his apparent victory.

July 20, 2025

From: dpa/det

The Frenchman, who was in the chasing group and prevailed in the bunch sprint, crossed the finish line in Carcassonne in third place. To make matters worse, he had crashed earlier.

"Unfortunately, my radio stopped working after the crash, so I tried to make the best possible sprint and think about winning the stage. Like an idiot, I raised my hands, but there were some guys ahead of me," the 33-year-old was told by the news agency Belgian quoted with reference to French television.

Julian Alaphilippe fell. © APA/afp / LOIC VENANCE

The 2020 and 2021 world champion had already experienced this mishap once before. He had already thrown his hands up at the 2020 Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic, but Slovenian Primoz Roglic won. Other stars were also not immune to the premature euphoria of victory. Among them was Belgian sprint star Jasper Philipsen at the 2022 Tour.

Shoulder dislocated

Alaphilippe said he dislocated his shoulder in a crash during the first half of the race. "I remembered what they did to me in the hospital and managed to put it back in place," he said. "It could have been better, but I could have gone home, so it's okay," Alaphilippe said, summing up his day.

Belgian Tim Wellens took the stage victory as a breakaway rider. Wellens's compatriot Victor Campenaerts also crossed the finish line ahead of Alaphilippe.

Keywords cycling Tour de France